You have crafted a unique and captivating name for your brand after hours, days, and months of brainstorming and research. Now, how do you ensure your presence in your customer’s mind, even when you are not physically present? That’s where a logo comes into play. Do you know that a good logo can take your brand to places? Logos are more than just pretty fonts and cool graphics, it play a crucial role in branding purposes, bringing your brand to life. In short, a logo is the face of your brand or business and deeply influences the purchasing behaviors of your potential customers.
Do My Business Need A Logo?
Your potential customers build their first emotional bond with your brand or business through your logo. It is the design element that is most strongly associated with recognizing your brand. This significant design will be put into use across all your marketing and advertising channels. Since this logo will be visible on everything from your website and products to your corporate stationery and other branding materials, it’s important to ensure your logo accurately represents your business idea and also stands out from your competitors' logos.
Steps for Creating an Eye-Catching Logo
These are some top tips for creating a captivating logo design.
Define Your Brand’s Identity
Your brand identity plays a crucial role in building your customer relationships. Your valuable customers learn about your unique selling point and other important values of your brand from this brand identity. And for this reason, your logo must clearly communicate the core personality of your brand.
How do you ascertain your brand’s identity? Even though there aren’t any systematic approaches to this, you can still determine the identity of your brand by asking the following questions:
- What made you launch your business?
- What are the basic principles that underpin your business or brand?
- What are the major factors that differentiate your brand from its competitors?
Once your brand has been established, it will be considerably easier to make design decisions that will enhance your brand identity.
Top Tip: Avoid making things too complicated. Consumers are able to cut through all of the fancy language and overly complex copy. Be the kind of brand that you would like to work with. Maintain simplicity, authenticity, and realism.
Refer to Samples and Take Inspiration
Finding inspiration for your design may be the most difficult aspect of the process. If you are someone striving for the perfect logo, you'll struggle to focus because there's always "one more page" to click on Google out of concern that you could overlook the ideal design inspiration on the subsequent page. Still, everything is a part of the creative process and more research will help you refer to more design inspirations.
Start With A Brainstorm
If you are a concept-oriented person who prefers to begin by gathering thoughts verbally, you might find that you need a formal brainstorming session to really come up with the style and vibe you want. The following three actions will assist you in coming up with the most innovative logo concepts:
- Adhere to the brainstorming guidelines: The goal of a brainstorming session is to record all of your ideas, even the most horrible ones. Even a terrible concept can start a dialogue that results in an amazing solution.
- Consider your target market: Create a list of terms that best characterize your brand and the impression you wish to give it. Consider yourself a member of your target audience and never forget what matters to them.
- Involve everyone: While a lone brainstorming session is OK, variety is the only thing that can truly create magic. Invite colleagues from all departments, as well as friends and business associates. More viewpoints are preferable.
Don't be scared to explore outside the box and be a little unconventional while brainstorming ideas for your logo. See how innovative combinations of concepts—such as cryptocurrencies and cavemen, or a honey bee and a pin on a map—are used in logos like the ones for Crypto Caveman and Sweet Trip? They convey personality and stand out from the competition thanks to their unique logo selections.
Create a Mood Board
A mood board could be the ideal tool for you to become motivated if you're a visual person. You can make a digital board (Pinterest would be the obvious choice here) or an actual one by cutting out and pinning printed photographs.
Just gather as many pictures as you are drawn to; they can be other logos, color schemes, drawings, or graphics—go crazy! You'll quickly notice that your mood board will showcase the aesthetic elements and styles that you find most appealing. Want a solid starting point? We recommend browsing the 99designs logo inspiration collection.
Check Out your Competitor Brands
Your competitor’s logos can serve as an ideal location for you to borrow ideas and get inspired. Check out what’s currently available, what is best for your target market, and what you should avoid.
While you're stalking those other companies, consider how you can highlight their uniqueness in your logo design and what sets them apart from you.
Make sure you differentiate yourself from your competitors. Consider using some color to stand out if every other company in your sector is going monochrome. Maybe a quirky and contemporary logo will stand out if everyone else is using a conventional style.
Choose Your Brand’s Design Style
Once you have a thorough understanding of the design type, you can start incorporating it into your brand. Here, a wide variety of design elements are utilized, including font, colors, forms, and graphics. Instead of being perplexed by the entire design at once, you may approach things step by step by breaking down each element and considering what it might accomplish for your logo.
The first thing you should consider when creating a logo is choosing the appropriate design aesthetic for your company. There is only one style that works best for your brand; there isn't one that is ideal for everyone.
Classic
Although they might be thrilling and enjoyable, trendy logos can quickly become antiquated. You may reach a wider audience and have more longevity with a classic style. This style avoids utilizing wild color schemes, fonts, or graphics in favor of simplicity. A timeless look conveys your dependability and groundedness to others.
Retro And Vintage Styles
The popularity of retro and vintage styles has been sustained for a while for a reason. They arouse romantic sentiments of nostalgia and swiftly transport you back in time. Customers will understand from a vintage logo that you value history and that everything you sell is done well. This style goes well with worn and hand-illustrated logos in beige and brown color schemes.
Simple And Minimal
Brands frequently choose a simple, minimalist look to convey their sense of modernity and freshness. This design approach frequently produces clean, understated logos by utilizing a lot of white space, few details, and straightforward lines. A modern, minimalistic aesthetic demonstrates to potential clients that your company is hip, stylish, and aware of what matters.
Fun And Quirky
This is a well-liked option for companies whose target market is young people or people at heart. Colorful and adorable, fun and quirky styles frequently incorporate symbols or images to convey a warm and inviting atmosphere. Select a charming artwork or a whimsical mascot to highlight the playful nature of your brand.
Handcrafted Style
A brand that embodies handmade quality and individualism is conveyed through its handcrafted style. The message is effectively conveyed when the style is combined with other aesthetics, such as vintage. However, it can also be paired with playful and minimalist looks for an elegantly understated or a fresh and young appearance.
Finding the Right Type of Logo
When generating your logo, you have a choice of seven primary logo kinds in addition to the overall style. You can choose the one that best fits your brand name or overall style, or you can mix them to make something entirely different.
Monogram Logos, Often Known as Lettermarks
Using lettermark logos can help your company's logo become more streamlined, especially if your name is long or difficult to recall. Many companies prefer to use their initials as their brand; consider HP, CNN, or H&M. Although these monograms work well for minimalist logos, keep in mind that they are not very effective at conveying the essence of your company.
Logotypes or Wordmarks
A fairly simple technique to use your company name as a logo is through wordmarks. They are all about typography to give them character and identification value—just take a peek at the ONE wordmark logo. This might be the ideal approach to highlighting your brand if you have a catchy name for it.
Picture Markings, often Known as Logo Symbols
When we hear the word "logo," we typically think of pictorial marks or logo symbols. These are instantly identifiable iconographic graphics that visually convey your brand. You can go with a simpler or more intricate design, but whatever you choose, make sure it forges a special bond with your company. These are frequently combined with a wordmark so that consumers are aware of your brand—at least until you reach the level of Apple and Target in terms of recognition.
Abstract Logotypes
Abstract logo markings are geometric forms that, rather than being recognized signs, produce something completely unique for your brand without immediately connecting to an already-existing image. Your company will be reduced to a sign that is genuinely exclusive to you with an abstract logo mark. The Printy logo demonstrates how an abstract symbol can have a lot of personality and still seem modern. Find out what various geometric logo forms represent if you want your abstract logo to evoke a particular sensation or atmosphere.
Mascots
Using mascot logos is a playful approach to adding individuality to your company. They are frequently vibrant, cartoonish characters that amiably and approachably represent your company. Watch the video below to find out more about the specifics of mascot logos.
Combined Symbol
As its name suggests, a combination mark combines a word mark and a symbol to produce a logo that is instantly recognized. Designer ludibes uses the Brite Side logo as an example of how the brand name can be merged into the graphic element or positioned next to the symbol. You can use them both separately or in combination since people will identify both with your brand.
Emblem
Emblem logos are similar to combination marks in that they frequently include textual and visual elements. Typically, they are composed of text that has been combined with an emblem or symbol, like crests, seals, or badges. The Rockwell Lighthouse logo demonstrates how these conventional shapes may give you a really vintage and sophisticated look.
Pay Attention To The Use Of Colors
Colors have meanings. There is a lot of psychology behind color, but in general, colors are associated with particular feelings and concepts. Check out this comprehensive guide to logo colors and their meanings to learn more about color theory.
- Red: The color red represents fervor, rage, and excitement. If your brand is vibrant, youthful, and wants to stand out, this is a wonderful option.
- Orange: Just as energizing as red, but far less common. This color is lively, energizing, and fun.
- Yellow: This is the best color if you want to appear approachable and kind. It exudes a happy, carefree, and impressionable vibe.
- Green: Green is quite adaptable and goes well with almost any brand. It's ideal for those who like to connect with nature in particular.
- Blue: Blue is a very traditional and popular color option. It represents maturity and reliability and is serene and cool.
- Purple: If you want to look opulent, purple is your color. Purple can be secretive, eclectic, or feminine, depending on the shade.
- Pink: Nothing looks more girly than pink, if you're looking for that. Still, that's not all! Colors like pastel rose, neon magenta, or millennial pink can add a sophisticated yet youthful and feminine touch to your brand.
- Brown: Although it may seem like an odd color choice at first, brown is ideal for gritty, manly antique logos. It can offer your brand an aged, distinctive, and handmade appearance.
- Black: Black is an excellent color option if you want to look slick, contemporary, and opulent. If you want to keep things basic, go with a black and white logo that is minimalistic.
- White: Do you like your logo to have a simple, contemporary, and clean look? Your logo should have a lot of white. It complements all other colors because it is a neutral hue, but it also gives a fresh, modern, and affordable touch.
- Gray: If you want to look sophisticated, classy, and serious, grey is the color to go for. Lighter hues are more approachable, whereas darker ones appear more enigmatic.
The Right Typography
Selecting a font should complete and enhance your logo. To give your logo a distinctive appearance, you can work with four fundamental types of fonts:
Serif Typefaces
See how the Avalon logo looks stylish and classic, thanks to the font? Serif fonts can give your logo a sophisticated, vintage appearance. The small "feet" at the end of each letter are called serifs, and they give the letters an older appearance. They look fantastic with any type of design and are incredibly adaptable, but they look especially good with designs that are elegant, classic, or old.
Sans Serif Typefaces
Sans-serif typefaces are ideal for a contemporary, tidy appearance. Their lack of serif types' tiny feet gives them a sleek, uncomplicated appearance. This is perfect for contemporary firms, such as the stylish and simple Delta Salt logo up top.
Script Fonts
Handwriting is reminiscent of script fonts. There are a plethora of options available, ranging from sophisticated calligraphic typefaces to easygoing scripts. Utilize them to give your logo a more distinctive appearance, a la Moon Rabbit.
Display Typefaces
Display typefaces are ornate, highly styled fonts that command attention. Check out the Perfect You logo above, which incorporates a playful 70s feel into the design by using a display typeface.
Combining many logo fonts together can give your typography a lot of strength. Check out this tutorial on choosing typefaces for your brand to learn how.
Communicate with Your Designer
The first rule of working with your designer is to communicate properly in order to ensure that your design turns out perfectly. You have the opportunity to communicate your needs and identity to your designer by creating a clear creative brief. To enable them to produce something truly original for you, be sure to provide them with as much information as you can about your business and style.
Try to be receptive to suggestions, even though there may be moments when you need to have some faith in your designer. Recall that your designer is a professional with a keen sense of what constitutes a strong logo. It's up to you to provide designers with plenty of clear, specific input so they know what you appreciate. Though cheesy, it's true that collaboration between you and your designer produces the best designs.
Integrate Your Logo Into Your Brand
Once your company has a great logo, you've established the perfect foundation for any branding collateral it requires, including business cards, packaging, and websites. Your logo serves as the foundation for all of your brand collateral, and your designer can craft a cohesive look for you by establishing the tone for your style, color scheme, typeface, and overall look and feel. And just like that, your company is prepared to reveal its new look to the public!